1. Field:
The present disclosure relates generally to data processing systems and, in particular, to storage devices used in data processing systems. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to accessing a removable storage device connected to a data processing system while the operating system is running.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage devices, such as hard disk drives, solid state disk drives, flash drives, and other suitable types of storage, are used to store information in a data processing system. These types of storage devices may use encryption software or hardware to encrypt some or all of the data on the storage device. For example, in a hard disk drive, full disk encryption or file-system level encryption may be used to encrypt data. File-system level encryption encrypts the files but does not typically encrypt file system metadata. With full disk encryption, every bit of data that is stored on the hard disk drive is encrypted. Full disk encryption may be used with a truss-to-platform module. A truss-to-platform module is a crypto processor that may be embedded in the motherboard and used to authenticate the hard disk drive. A crypto processor is a dedicated processor for carrying out cryptographic operations. With full disk encryption, access to a hard disk drive is provided only with the proper authentication of the entity requesting access. This entity may be a user entering a user identifier and password, a truss-to-platform module sending the appropriate token or key, or some other suitable entity. Without proper authentication, access to the data on the hard disk drive does not occur.
Various mechanisms are present for allowing a hard disk drive to be moved from one computer to another computer. For example, when a hard disk drive is moved to another computer, a password may be given to that computer to provide access to the hard disk drive.